Evan Sarah Epstein

I am so in love with this new blog venture that my girlfriend and I are cooking up. Over-the-moon excited. I mean, really – I think about it all the time. But I can’t share… yet. Soon…

I was the kid in elementary school who would go to the library on a Friday after school, pick out a book and then spend all of my Saturday curled up on the couch – reading said book cover-to-cover. I loved to read and still do. The other day as I was searching for a new book to read, I came across a killer deal on the Kindle store: the first three Anne of Green Gables books for $1.99. Now, I don’t know about you, and I am sure I was probably an odd duck in this department, but in third grade, I just devoured those books. I LOVED them. Naturally, with a price like that, I had to buy them to see if the magic would hold. I have to admit – I was skeptical and a little nervous. I was about to re-read books that were so magical for me as a child that they inspired hours of imagination and daydreaming, and the thought that I would not take to the books as I did when I was eight and nine- years- old was a little daunting.

Turns out, I didn’t need to worry. They really are that good (entertaining?).
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It’s February – what better a month to start thinking about fitness competitions and longer rides… Um, yeah…

My activity level this month has been absolute proof that I need to have the motivation of others to move during what I find to be the dreariest month of the year. If it were up to me, I would hole up in my house, in sweats, eating stew and knitting – with the cat nearby for a majority of my waking hours in February. I mean, January is a hopeful month – you have the New Year and resolutions to keep you going, and March is when we start to see the first, exciting signs that winter will indeed come to an end, but February? February is just blah. Luckily I know this about myself (and I have to leave the house to go to work anyhow ) so I put things in place to keep me from becoming the human embodiment of a sloth (they are pretty cute though).

First up: Cascade Bicycle Club’s Chilly Hilly – otherwise known as – I froze my butt off while looking at pretty things. And then it snowed (true story).

I’ve wanted to do this ride since moving to Seattle, but never got up the courage until this year. Whoa mama – that is one chilly and hilly ride. No false advertisement! Our friends Craig and Kirsten from Spokane came over for the weekend to join us. After about five minutes of riding, it became abundantly clear that Sean rides his bike all winter long and the rest of us do not. Due in no small part to the approximately 15,239 lunges, squats and lifts they have us doing at CrossFit Interbay all winter long, I was able to keep up reasonably well – but I have to admit – I had to work at it! It was a really cold day and without the persistent encouragement we all received to keep going from Kirsten, we would have bailed (pancakes sounded really good). I’m glad we didn’t though. It is really a beautiful ride, and I have full intentions of doing it again – in July. It would have to be a really unseasonably warm February to do Chilly Hilly again. No matter how beautiful the ride is, I will never forget riding up a steep hill while snowflakes fell all around me. I didn’t have a happy set of lungs. But really – the company and the scenery were fab!

Second up: The CrossFit Games Open

Every year CrossFit HQ and Reebok partner up to find “The fittest man and woman on earth.” You know, a small task To be clear: I have no delusions of grandeur – I do not think I am the fittest woman on earth. But I and many, many other people participate nonetheless as a test of our own personal fitness. It goes like this:

Yeah, so it looks really intense. The reality however is that I have never gone into any other athletic pursuit that was so welcoming and encouraging. The last person to finish the workout of the day (WOD) is always cheered on by their fellow gym mates and everything is scaled to your ability level. It also never gets easy. Ever – as you get better, the weights, speeds and intensities of the workout adjust accordingly. I realized last weekend that I have been sore in some way or another for the last year and a half since I started doing CrossFit. And I love it.

It’s that time of year again: The time where we all feel like we can start fresh and new with no mistakes. I’m not immune to this frenzy, though, I do make a point to avoid any resolution that has me living on celery sticks and hating my appearance – it’s so counter-productive! So, like a lot of people, I’ve made a list for myself. I’ve spent the past week thinking about what I would like to improve about myself and if I can accomplish/maintain at least a few of the following goals in 2012, I’ll feel successful.
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Far Away Home and The Bride’s House: these two books enthralled and captivated me so thoroughly that I cannot find the words to do them justice. I read both of these earlier in the year and I am still holding them up to every book I read. I love a good bit of historical fiction, but where most books end up relying on the main character alone to carry the novel, these two books make the environment around them just as important a player in the story. In so doing, the scenes I imagined in my head while reading these books were as crystal clear as if I had just watched this story unfold in HD. Really – you MUST read these books.
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I turned 30 over Labor Day weekend, but it wasn’t until this past week that it really sunk in: my 20s are over. How do I feel about that? Surprisingly not freaked, but certainly a little like I now have a clock hovering over my head dictating what needs to come next.
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There are few things in this world that fill me with as much anticipation and joy as camping. I look forward to it all year; it is one of those thoughts that warm me up on dreary, cold winter days when I fear I will never see the sun again (winter in Seattle can mean really long stretches of time without sunshine! Vitamin D supplements are necessary). Camping is one of the first things I think of as the weather changes in early spring. It gives me hope – it floats me through “spring” in Seattle. It is during the never-ending cold spring days that I begin to plan. And plan. And plan. Until I stop and realize I’ve just booked trips out of the city and into the woods for every weekend from June through September. Every fall, as the camping/hiking/biking season winds down, I promise myself that next year I will take it easy – I’ll schedule more leisurely weekends at home. But come spring, the call of the outdoors wins out and I repeat the cycle.
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So, it’s been a while since I posted anything. The last couple months have been a total whirlwind and the next few promise to be more of the same. Part of that whirlwind has been my Friday night knitting group (which hasn’t been able to meet in the last month because of our ridiculous schedules). I love Friday night knitting. I get to sit around in sweatpants (this is a strictly enforced dress-code), nibble on homemade goodies, knit, and gossip and catch up with wonderful ladies who constantly inspire me and make me laugh.

When we started this weekly get-together last fall, I was certainly the laggard in the knitting talent department. I started off on a monster of a sweater/ jacket project for myself, while the other ladies were smart and took on shorter, more immediate gratification projects that taught them more of the technical skills that I am only now starting to attempt. Every week, they would be onto new projects, while I dutifully trudged on with the never-ending sweater. Every week I would pull out the panel I was working on and admire all the progress they were making in the intervening days between our meetings.

Then one day it happened – I finally finished. I am fairly certain that in the time it took me to finish this sweater, they produced 22 pairs of socks, two bibs, several baby booties, a poncho, and a couple baby sweaters. But I suppose that’s not the point. The point is that despite the ridiculous amount of time it took me to finish; I do now have a very warm and not entirely hideous sweater that I can proudly say I made myself. Once I finished the sweater, 1) I felt relief, and 2) I wanted to take on shorter projects… which I did!

Since the sweater, I’ve completed a couple baby sweaters for friends and a cowl. All of it at a leisurely pace and with each project, I felt like I was gaining more momentum and certainly making far fewer mistakes. I barely made any with the last piece I finished!

As we head into the summer, I know Friday night knitting will be spotty at best as we all make plans to play outside, but come fall – watch out – I’ll be ready

It’s been a long time since I posted anything bookish, so here goes: a list of some of the more interesting books I’ve read this past year.

The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory

I’d heard this was a lot smuttier than it turned out to be. I was expecting ridiculous camp and drama. But, The Other Boleyn Girl ended up being a lot more of a slow, day-by-day account of what a woman of the court during Henry VIII had to contend with. I really appreciated the level of historical detail and fact that Philippa Gregory put into the novel. As much as I enjoyed reading about the game of social chess the court played, I think what I enjoyed the most were the parts of the book where the heroine leaves court to live as a poor farmer’s wife, learning to make bread and cheese and giving up the niceties of court living. It was so interesting to see these two realities juxtaposed for the main character. In one, a woman’s value laid in her ability to craft hearty ale, in the other; it was her ability to keep all eyes on her, no matter the personal cost.

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Over the course of the past year or so, one of my big goals has been to make more of my own stuff. I was already fairly proficient in the kitchen, but I wanted to add to what I already did. I wanted to take up crafts like knitting and soap making, make more of my foods from scratch, to not only get rid of the fillers and unnecessary ingredients, but to feel a closer connection to my food. I wanted to expand my canning beyond jam and applesauce. I just wanted a greater connection between myself and what I consumed – both food and materials.

What’s really helped along the way has been Sean’s interest in this as well. He loves making things, from beer to book binding, so I never feel like my sometimes, less-than-perfect accomplishments aren’t appreciated. That’s something that certainly goes a long way.
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